The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet Russia-led security bloc, is not fully ready to respond to hybrid attacks, the organization’s secretary general, Stanislav Zas, said on Sunday.
"Is the CSTO ready to repel such attacks, hybrid attacks? I would say no. The CSTO is not fully ready for such response," he said in an interview with the ONT television channel.
Zas recalled that the CSTO "was established as a purely military-political organization to repel military threats." "Over the twenty years of its existence, naturally, a serious transformation has taken place. We are turning into a comprehensive platform for ensuring security of our states," he added.
Citing examples of methods used in hybrid attacks, Zas listed terrorist threats, "drug trafficking, crime, including in the sphere of information and communications technologies."
"The sphere of cooperation between our states is expanding, as is the sphere of the CSTO’s activity. We are not yet ready but, as a matter of fact, we are moving toward it," he stressed.
